In 2025, ASEs are fighting for…

Job Security 

1. Ensure equity between fellows and similarly-situated GSRs, including pay, experience-based raises, and workplace protections

2. Ensure that costs to UC incurred as a result of our contract do not unfairly burden our PIs or Departments by creating a central pool of money from which PIs and Departments can draw on to fund our raises and benefits

3. Establishing a single scale for TAs and SRs with experience-based steps that recognize all our training and skills as academic workers

4. Guarantee 50% appointments for the entire normative time to degree in PhD and MFA programs

5. Guarantee 12-month appointments or equivalent funding for all PhD students

Fair Pay and Benefits

1. Annual COLA on Wage Increases (CPI)

2. Improve out-of-pocket affordability of University healthcare, and uninterrupted access to health care services, especially mental health and specialty services

3. End arbitrary pay disparities between campuses, cohorts, and job titles by raising the base wage to end rent burden and meet the cost of living across the UC system

Hourly Workers

1. Raise the minimum income for hourly workers

1. Improve worker agency in the interactive process for workers with access needs; for instance, by making explicit that workers do not need medical documentation to request accommodations

2. Establish a centralized transitional funding program, enforceable through our contract, available to all ASEs seeking to change research groups due to irresolvable differences with their PI or incompatibility in research goals

3. Implement mandatory, worker-led trainings for all ASEs, including paid release time for trainers, on how to access workplace accommodations, the interactive process, and anti-harassment resources, recognizing workplace discrimination based on faith, sexual identity, gender, disability and race to create a respectful work environment for all workers

1. Expand access to and scope of free regional and campus-run public transit, available year-round

2. Fully disclose all sources of funding for research projects where ASEs work to empower workers to follow their conscience

3. Publicly disclose UC's full investment portfolio through a publicly accessible, detailed, and regularly updated database

4. Protect workers’ access to essential healthcare services, such as gender-affirming care, birth control, and abortion against right-wing attacks

5. Ensure ASE retirement contributions are invested in a fund free from weapons manufacturers and companies that violate human rights, and ensure that all future investments comply as well

1. Expand long-term medical leaves in duration and scope

2. Establish clear and consistent workload expectations across all ASE job titles and guarantee ASEs are paid for all work completed, including work done towards research credits that overlap with GSR job duties

3. Establish instructor-to-student ratio policies that include upper limits and require the University to meet and confer over changes to the policy

4. Increase the maximum number of terms an ASE is eligible for employment in the bargaining unit

1. Prohibit the purchase and use of lethal and "less-than-lethal" weapons and militarized equipment by or for UCPD, including guns and launchers, projectiles, tasers, mace, batons, and drones

2. Protect academic freedom by prohibiting UC from disciplining ASEs for engaging in political speech at work

3. Provide ASEs advance notice when police "mutual aid" is requested and empower workers to avoid campus in the event of heavy police presence

4. Prohibit UC from sharing resources or campus facilities to assist the police with interrogations, incarceration, confinement or trainings

1. Shorten arbitration timelines by establishing a set of dates reserved for arbitration hearings with a rotating panel of arbitrators

2. Eliminate Step 3 of the grievance process or provide a direct route to appeal step 2 decisions to arbitration

3. End bifurcation on arbitrability issues

4. Protect and expand our right to engage in collective action, including ULP strikes and solidarity actions with other striking workers

5. Provide all union members unrestricted access to all incoming ASEs in both campus and department orientations

1. Increase the childcare reimbursement to reduce the financial burden of childcare expenses and increase flexibility in how the reimbursement can be used

2. Increase the amount of paid and unpaid leave an ASE can take to care for children and dependents

3. Improve workers' ability to secure affordable, quality housing through increased availability of on-campus housing, rent caps, and stipends for off-campus housing, especially workers with families

1. Expand PTO to accommodate international workers' needs

2. Expand the remission of all fees required to work at UC, including NRST, for international workers

3. Guarantee job security for international workers facing unemployment due to loss of work authorization or travel restrictions